Nebraska Coach Bo Pelini

Nebraska Football
Weekly Press Conference
Monday, Sept. 29, 2014
Memorial Stadium (Lincoln, Neb.)
Pre-Michigan State

Opening Statement
“Well after looking at the film from the other day, it was about what I thought it was going to show. Very similar to my thoughts after the game. We had a good session yesterday as far as cleaning up some things and getting a jump on Michigan State. Obviously today’s our day off. Big game planning day. We’ll get back to work tomorrow. I’ll open it up for any questions.”

On the respect he has for the Michigan State staff
“I have a lot of respect for them. I’ve known Coach (Mark) Dantonio and other guys on that staff for a long time. They do a heckuva job. Do things the right way. Really Michigan State as a whole, I have a lot of respect for their AD and their whole athletic program. I think they do it the right way. There’s a lot of integrity there. I think they do it the right way.”

On what has made the offense so successful in the last few matchups with Michigan State
“We’ve had some success, but they’ve had some success, too. I mean it’s all about who executes on any given day. They’re very well-coached. I don’t worry a lot about what’s happened in the past or anything like that. It’s about what’s going to happen Saturday night and how two football teams are going to play that Saturday night.”

On if they have learned from Michigan State in past experiences with them
“Well anytime you have history with somebody, you watch some of the previous games and try to learn from them. They’re doing the same. This will be a separate deal. There are things you can always learn, both good and bad, from looking at what’s happened previously against an opponent.”

On the status of senior I-back Ameer Abdullah
“Ameer is fine. He could have played. He could have finished the game. He went back in the game. He’s fine. We just thought it was the right time to give him a rest.”

On the status of senior cornerback Josh Mitchell
“Josh is good.”

On the status of junior linebacker David Santos
“We’ll know a little bit more today. He’s feeling a lot better. Right now, until we have some practice this week, it’s hard to say.”

On the importance of potentially being 6-0 for the first time since 2001
“Not very important. Not historically. It’s important because I want to go 6-0. Historically it doesn’t really mean that much to me. This is about this team and what we’re trying to accomplish. Obviously it’s extremely important, but every game we play is going to be. I’m not going to make any more of it than what it is.”

On how Michigan State quarterback Connor Cook has improved from last year
“He’s a really good player. He’s very decisive and gets the ball out in a hurry. Strong arm. Pretty accurate thrower. I think they do a good job. I think he really understands what they’re trying to do offensively. He makes good decisions. He has a quick release. I think he’s a tremendous player.”

On if Cook’s ability to keep the play alive is a threat
“Yes. But I think anybody is. I think the receivers do a good job of if they’re first route is covered, trying to stay alive and move. You have to lock on. You have to be very disciplined. I think they do a nice job of just trying to find holes. When you have a quarterback who can throw the ball into some tight windows like he can, I think his receivers do a nice job of staying alive. You see it happen on multiple occasions.”

On if the size of Michigan State’s receivers are a challenge
“Everyone is a little bit different. The group we played last week had pretty good size. But they have good size and they’re physical. They run good routes. I think they do a good job. Sometimes they have those big guys who are kind of lumbering. But these guys are quick. They do a nice job, they’re well-coached and get in and out of breaks. Do a nice job for big guys dropping their weight and being able to change direction. It’s not easy to do. Obviously they’ve been coached very well.”

On how the defensive backs have progressed in man-to-man coverage and overall precision
“Pretty good at times, inconsistent at times. You have to get better every week. You have to keep working your technique. When we play with our technique and do the things we were coached to do, we’re usually pretty good. Out there, there’s not a lot of room for error when you’re playing on the edge. You’re playing out there and you’ve got to stay within your technique. You’ve got to challenge people. You’re never going to play perfectly out there. But at the same time, you’ve got to keep working on your fundamentals and stay with your technique. Especially for younger guys, that’s hard to do sometimes.”

On the improvement of Abdullah from last year
“I think he’s better in every area. I think he had a great year last year, but I think he’s a better football player this year. That’s a testament to him and his hard work. His mindset and preparation. His drive. He’s just playing at a very high level right now.”

On what he thought of the offensive line after reviewing the film
“I thought it was very good. I thought it was outstanding actually. I thought we brought movement well. I thought we did a lot of good things. They threw a lot at us. They had close to 50 pressures in the game. I mean that’s a lot. Obviously we ran a lot of plays, but over 50 percent of the time we got something. I think they started out trying to play some base early and didn’t have a lot of success with it. We decided that the way to go was to try to run a lot of movement. Our guys, we’ve seen a lot of it. I think we’ve gotten better over the last few weeks of blocking movement. Hats on hats. Giving our backs room to run. If you cover people up, our backs are pretty good. The game that we didn’t play very well up front was the McNeese State game. Like I said, they had a lot of free hitters. We didn’t react very well to their movement. And I think that for now, it’s a weekly thing. You’ve got to do it every week. But I think we’ve gotten better. I think that game made us better up front.”

On why he thinks defenses are creating movement against the offense
“There’s some difficult things. It’s hard to get into all of the x’s and o’s, but our offense stresses a lot of different ways. When you’re throwing into the quarterback run game, some of the different things go along with it. What you want to do is there is some problem plays. I always believe this, that if you’re just pressuring to try to lock into something, it’s usually not going to go really well. You usually want to pressure with a purpose. I don’t know what the mindset has been with some of the guys, but there areas some of difficult things to be able to handle and account for as far as what our offense does. And sometimes trying to stunt some guys and move some guys around gives some hope for you. I think the mindset is trying to give them the opportunity to hit things a little bit quicker, mess up our reads, that sort of thing.”

On if he thinks it will take the offensive line time to develop
“In my experience, it usually takes, no matter if it’s offensive line or defensive line, across the board it takes time to develop. It doesn’t happen overnight. You don’t have the luxury in college football of preseason games and that type of thing. There’s only so much you can do in the preseason. Let’s face it, you have to take a look at your team and what your early on schedule is and kind of build what you have to do as we’re going forward. As far developing your football time and how much time you have. But you’ve got to get better. That’s why I say it’s easy to jump the gun. In a lot of different ways as far as judging football teams and that type of thing, to me it’s what you are going to be able to do in the long haul.”

On if he thinks Oct. 1 is a checkpoint as far as team growth and development
“I think it kind of gives you an idea. But I think sometimes you have to look at the whole body of work. When you have four or five games under your belt, you start to hit your stride a little bit. Like I said the other night, I don’t know if anyone is a finished product. We surely aren’t. I’ve seen a lot of good things. A lot of positives. But you can’t beat yourself. I actually saw something last week that John Wooden said. It was that a lot of times games aren’t necessarily won. A lot of times big games are lost on one side or the other. There’s a lot to that. It’s easy to say just take care of yourself, but I just look at some of the years we had the other night. And that’s not taking away from what another football team does or what the opponent does. If somebody makes a play on you, they make a play. You’ve got to make them earn it. That’s what you’ve got to constantly fight against is being your own worst enemy. You know everybody is, but all I can control is our football team. And at times we are. That’s what we have to fix. We have to keep getting more consistent.”

On if he thinks the offensively line has played consistently at a high level historically
“There have been a lot of great offensive lines that have played here historically. There’s a lot of tradition here we try to build on and talk about in our recruiting. Dave Rimington and Brendan Stai, you go right down the list of the great players that have played here. They’re not playing for us Saturday. This group has to hold up their own. That’s through five games, that’s through a season.”

On what senior wide receiver Kenny Bell has meant to the offense and the program in general
“You just said it. He’s a total package. He’s a team guy. If Kenny played in one of these spread offenses, he’d probably catch maybe a hundred balls. He’s a great receiver and somebody who’s a weapon. But he understands that isn’t our offense. That isn’t how we play. He doesn’t get caught up in all that. He also is mature enough to understand that statistics don’t tell the whole tale. You’ve got to keep that in perspective. And he’s a team guy. He wants to win football games. He understands what his role is, how the offense works, and I think he does it extremely well. They started out the game the other night doubling him. They didn’t want him to beat him. They were leaning their coverage that way two guys to his side. They knew where he was early on in the game. And when you’ve got to commit two guys like that when you’re worried about a guy, that opens up some things in the running game.”

On if he knew why Bell hugged an official after the game
“I didn’t. But did you see the picture of me hugging the referee?”

On if he saw the potential leadership in Bell when they recruited him
“It’s hard to tell at that point. We knew he was a good kid. Kenny’s grown up big time since he’s been here. Matured. I think leadership qualities have started to really come out this year. We really liked him obviously when he was a recruit. We thought he was a pretty special athlete. He carried the ball more than he caught it in high school.”

On if Abdullah ever talked to him about his goals for this year
“He wants to win. That’s all Ameer has on his mind. I mean Ameer has high standards for himself, but at the end of the day he wants to win football games. That’s why he came back. That’s who he is. If he ran for 20 yards and we won a football game, he wouldn’t blink an eye. Obviously he might be mad at himself if he didn’t play well. He’s a team guy. That’s what makes him who he is.”

On what the players thought about the new uniforms based on some negative feedback they received
“You know, I didn’t even ask them. Where did it get negative feedback? I’ve heard a little bit of both. It depends on which sample size you take, right?”

On if they talk about what happened against Michigan State last year as they prepare for this week
“What happened, happened. You can look at it two ways. You can look at it and say we gave it to them. You can look at it from their standpoint that they took it. At the end of the day, we need to not make mistakes. Whatever they did to create the takeaways, we’ve got to make sure we get fixed. It’s going to be hard to win a football game when you turn the ball over five times. We need to play better and cleaner to give ourselves a chance to win the football game. But I don’t want to take away and say that we should have won that football game. That’s kind of a cop out to a certain extent. That’s not giving Michigan State credit. They won the football game and we lost. No matter how it happened.”

On if there is a hunger for redemption
“Oh absolutely. I think our guys are hungry. We have a really good opponent and our guys are really looking forward to playing them. I have a lot of respect for Michigan State, trust me. And we know we’re going to have to play well to beat them. I know if you go and talk to some of those guys on their side, they probably feel the same way. We’ve played some good games against each other.”

On if he is prepared for any of Michigan State’s signature trick plays
“I think you always have to be. It’s part of the game. You have to be aware. You’ve got to have good awareness. When you see something that you haven’t necessarily prepared for, you have to get your guys to react the right way and have awareness something’s up. Something different is going one here, and you have to have some awareness. That’s part of the deal. You can’t prepare them for everything. I wish I was sitting in their film room, but I’m not. Hopefully you survive plays like that.”

On what he thinks of the numbers Abdullah has put up so far this season
“My reaction is that I hope we’re saying the same thing in week 10, 11 and 12. I don’t know how it’s going to go, but I can tell you one thing. Right now he is playing at an extremely high level. He feels fresh and feels good. That’s a positive for us. If you keep blocking well for him up front, he’s a hard guy to deal with. He can’t do it by himself. He’s a great player I think. Not good, but a great player. But you’ve got to play great around him to give him an opportunity.”

On if he thinks Abdullah is as good as any guy he’s been around at that age
“I don’t know. You mean in college? Yeah, I think he’s a really good football player. To me the great ones stand the test of time. I think he’s a really good football player. I don’t like to get into comparisons and that type of thing. Who would we compare him to? I don’t really know. I think what he wants to be is Ameer Abdullah, which is pretty special.”

On the importance of the backups that can come in the game to keep Abdullah fresh
“I thought we did that the other night. Imani (Cross) got some significant carries and yards. Terrell (Newby) was in there. I think Ameer does a really good job of telling us when he needs a break. When he needs a blow, he comes out. I’d be concerned if he was taking a beating. Ameer, like I said before, doesn’t take a lot of big hits. His style of running and that type of thing with what we’re doing offensively. I don’t know, he just doesn’t take a lot of big hits. I think we were smart with him in camp. We were smart with him in spring ball. We try to take care of him during the week. And the big thing is that we are constantly talking to him. Communication goes on all the time.”

On if he ever has to hold Abdullah back in practice to make sure he doesn’t overdo it
“Ameer gets the big picture. Trust me, everybody still needs work. There’s a time when to and when not to. That’s why the communication between us is so important.”

On if he liked what he saw from junior I-back Imani Cross on Saturday
“I thought it was really good for Imani. Imani carried the ball well in the first half. He’s a good player. He’s a good back. I think he’s a really good change of pace for Ameer. And I think Terrell Newby is growing better. He’s a weapon, too. He’s a good back. I’m feeling good about our backs.”

On the progress junior cornerback Daniel Davie has made over the last few years
“I think Daniel is getting better. He’s got to work on his consistency. He does a lot of good things. He is a talented kid who was probably more of an offensive guy when we took him. Moved him over to corner. It’s taken some time, which it always does. I think this experience and getting the playing time that he has helped him. We’ve got to keep working to get him better.”

On if Davie’s ACL recovery was unusual
“No. I mean that kind of quicker recovery is pretty normal now. The ACL surgery and that type of thing happens a lot differently than it used to. The way they do the surgery and the rehab. The aggressiveness. Here at Nebraska, our trainers, doctors and the rehab these guys have is aggressive and they do a heckuva job. You look at a guy like Michael Rose right now and see how he looks, and he’s walking around, you would never know he had surgery just a short time ago.”

On the status of junior wide receiver Taariq Allen
“Taariq is OK.”

On if the Michigan State game last year was a big learning experience for sophomore quarterback Tommy Armstrong Jr.
“I don’t know. That’s a question you’ll have to ask Tommy. I think every week no matter good or bad, you learn something every week.”

On what he thinks sophomore defensive back Nate Gerry has done well so far
“I think he’s a good football player. I think he has a good understanding. I think he has a long way to go yet. Like anybody else, it’s about doing it down-in down-out consistency. Learning and applying it every week.”

On if Gerry has made a big jump from last year
“Well he was a backer last year. Mainly a dime, which I think has helped him at safety. I really do. I think it’s helped him a lot. I think Coop (Corey Cooper) benefitted from the same thing early on in his career. You play up there, you kind of understand how things work up front. I think it makes you better when you go back. It gives you a whole different perspective understanding run fits and that type of thing and how the thing around you is happening. And I think Nate benefitted from that.”

On if redshirt freshman I-back Adam Taylor is ruled out for the year
“We’re not going to have Adam return.”

On keeping track of injuries or "wobbly" players out on the field
“That’s really not my job. Our trainers and doctors do a great job with that. Our doctors and trainers are looking at the game from a whole different perspective than I am. I mean usually you notice it. But I know one thing, I can’t remember a time that a guy has been wobbly and he’s been out really quickly. We have a whole team of doctors and trainers who are looking for a thing like that. We’ve been around that sort of thing a couple times and like I said, pretty quickly you tell them to get out. If it’s happening in the huddle then it’s not easy to find. A lot of time his teammates will give people a heads up.”

On if there is anyone up in the press box that looks for those situations
“Well we have eyes on every position. There are some things you can see that are obvious. If a guy is stumbling around, you’re going to see it. If a guy gets dinged a little bit, it’s hard to see that until you look into their eyes. That’s hard to see from the press box. But like I said, every case is a little bit different. Some are easier to spot than others obviously.”

On if he thought the defense should have blocked that punt during Saturday’s game
“Oh my goodness. We should have blocked the punt. It was Marcus Newby. We thought we were going to come free on that. But I didn’t expect it to be Marcus. I think what we did confused them. I think he was shocked. I think he was surprised. I think he needs to learn from it and we all can learn from it. You have to expect that you’re going to be the one. I mean I knew we were close, but when I saw the film I was like my goodness, he could have tackled him. But you know he’s a young guy. First time in that position. Sometimes that’s going to happen.”